2014 London World Naked Bike Ride

A few days ago I went to my third naked bike ride. Starting for the second time in the pleasant green surroundings of Regent's Park. I thought I might have quite the cohort of friends joining my this year, but alas in the end it boiled down to three (more work required on talking people into this I guess!).

Last year I hung a sign on my bike, but this time I thought to have more impact I'd adorn myself. And as fracking is my particular environmental bugbear at the moment I went with an anti-fracking message. My friend also opted to sport the same stop fracking sign, so we had a nice bit of protest impact as a pair. Indeed one thing we observed is that the environmental protest element of this event is rather lost; perhaps some attempt to get more people to take on the same slogans and logos would help project the message?

Fortunately the sun appeared (after a rainy morning) and is was another perfect day for cycling naked around London. Here are my friends and I enjoying the day:

Of course I took my camera along to record the protest too. After two years shooting at the event with quirky panoramic cameras I decided I wanted a bit more control this year, and took my regular SLR, albeit with my new wide angle lens, so I could still take advantage of a wide field of view to get some sense of the crowd. On this day though I really didn't seem to be in the photographic mode, and found myself not quite knowing what to do with that control. So I didn't take many shots this year. Also using a heavier camera I found it much trickier to shoot on the fly mid-ride, so I only really got shots from when the ride paused. What I have taken I quite like though, and has me thinking already about how I might approach the next ride! You can see the rest of what I shot, here.

I've also engaged with my standard post-naked bike ride activity: Play Where's Wally (or James) on Flickr. I've found the pictures below featuring me this time. While the friend I was cycling with got shot on her own quite a few times, I was apparently not interesting enough this year (too lacking in boobs I guess), so I'm part of a pair in every image! Images via here, here, here, here, here, here, here, UPDATE: and here, here, here, here, here.